Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle LaBarre.
Hi Kyle, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
While attending my sister-in-law’s wedding back in 2019 I was impressed with the wedding venue that was hosting the wedding. It was elegant and spacious and it enabled the family to have a great time. I thought that it would be wonderful if we could help give our beautiful backdrop to people’s big day and share in the memories that people will have for a lifetime. At the wedding, I called my sister, Kelly Lee, and she immediately loved the idea. We started doing research and found that it made sense financially, so we found another partner and started the business!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle was getting the bank’s approval. We had to change plans several times to make the idea fit within the bank’s constraints. We were not expecting how many hoops we would be made to jump through again and some hoops more than once. We were able to trudge through it and opened our doors for business in May of this year.
We encountered even more problems when we tried to get our TABC (alcohol) permits. From not being able to get ahold of the right person at the county for weeks, to having them finally tell us something completely different than what is written. We have tried our best to remain flexible and roll with the punches and hopefully will have that all sorted out before the end of the year.
After opening our doors, I think the struggle was just like any other brand-new business. We had to rely heavily on marketing and generating interest to start getting our first events booked. The silver lining was that we were able to have time to do some renovations to the building and property without having to coordinate around events!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Planning a wedding is very stressful and arguably the most important part of that is where to have the wedding. Everything else seems to hinge on that one decision. Decorations, color schemes, invitations, and much more. Add to that the possibility that the date you want may not be available! The longer this is put off, the more difficult everything becomes.
We aim to reduce the stress of our guests by providing a beautiful space as the perfect backdrop to one of the biggest days of their lives! We can accommodate all party sizes from small gatherings to large blowout events. Once they lock in their date, they can breathe a sigh of relief and move on to the other important to-do items. What sets us apart is our willingness to go above and beyond for our guests.
We want them to feel special from the moment they walk in, We hope our guests know we encourage them to make the space their own and we will work hard to make their vision come to life. We are a very accessible, family-run business and welcome all inquiries. We have tours available most days and invite anyone interested to take a personal walkthrough with us. We are most proud of our ability to work through adversity and setbacks and still turn dreams and plans into reality.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Anyone who wants to host a party of any type can give us a call, email, or text. We do our best to interact on social media as well! For vendors, we have had vendor showcases in the past and would love to have more in the future!
We work with any vendors that also work in the event industry, i.e., cake makers, caterers, decorators, DJs, photographers, wedding planners, etc… They can reach out to us for updates on when we will have the next showcase so they can be involved. Tentatively we are thinking the next one will be sometime around February 2023.
Shameless plug: We are also throwing a big Halloween party on Oct 28th! Adults are welcome and tickets can be found here: https://the-black-oak.ticketleap.com/halloween-party/
We are also in the process of planning a Christmas breakfast with Santa Claus in December, but no ticket information is available at this time.
Pricing:
- Weekend events start at $5,000
- Fall discount starts at $3,250
- Mini-monies start at $1,500
- Other weekday events start at $250/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: theblackoak.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackoakvenue/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblackoakvenue/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGzBY4w8NbPjRejYGcrDvpA
Image Credits
Amanda Kluesner
